Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Downsizing!!

We are getting dangerously close to moving out of our apartment (our lease is up October 1st), which means we are dangerously close to moving on our boat, which further means we need to downsize...big time.


My friend Kimmy came over and took some of my clothes and shoes off my hands!  She is also taking our entire bedroom set which now means that all of our major furniture pieces (couch, love seat, coffee table, side tables) have been claimed.  Feels good.


So... who wants to magically make all the stuff we want to keep find a spot on the boat?  Or help us move out of our apartment?  

Bueller...?  Bueller...?

Love, 

Brittany & Scott

Monday, August 30, 2010

Yesterday was one of those days...

We would have rather been sailing...but the work Scott and Walt accomplished on our autopilot set up and the wiring was well worth being dock-locked.


Love, 

Brittany & Scott

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Bad Neighbors

Man, and I thought our boat was a mess before.  Yesterday, we took it to a whole new level.  I imagine our boat neighbors are looking forward to when we leave, as we are creating quite the mess on our dock and making lots of noise while doing it.  We feel like the neighbors who never take down their Christmas decorations or litter their lawn with plastic lawn ornaments or have a broken down jalopy in the front yard.  

It's just not good for the 'hood.  

Despite being the "F" dock hicks - I am happy to report that, among other things, we now have a functioning toilet aboard and we are *this* close to having power!

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Burning the Midnight Oil

Today I had a guy ask me when we were leaving on our "big trip".  I told him mid-to-end September-ish.  He said with a cautionary nod, "That's coming up quick".  I might have paused just a hair too long before I said "You're telling me".

As if we didn't know that.  Sheesh.  We are on the boat every day at least 8 hours a day and a lot of the time it seems we are taking two steps forward and one step back.  One look at this page, however, and it's all worth it. Dang!  We've done a lot!

We're burning the midnight oil...and the 8am oil, and the noon oil, and the happy hour oil...in fact, we are burning all sorts of oil except engine oil - as we have yet to leave our cozy slip more than once since we arrived.  

We're working on that...

Tonight, the name of the game was connecting "shunts" to our batteries.  "Shunt" sounds like a bad word.

Day is done, gone the sun...
No matter how many times I straighten up this table, the mess just comes back bigger and stronger...
Scott and Walt, figuring out where all "shunts"  will go on our batteries.
Moonrise.

We'll be back at the boat at 8am.  For now, we're sitting back with some wine and kicking up our (dirty) feet.

Night night,

Brittany & Scott

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Just a little "Thank you" to the Weather

Dear Weather,

Today was pretty much a perfect day here in Chicago, which made me sit back and think to myself, 'You know what? The weather has been particularly awesome as of late - I should really thank it...'

So....Despite getting off to a pretty rough and wet start, thank you so much for cooperating with us these past few weeks.  You have provided blue, sunny skies and light until 8pm which has made working on our boat so much easier and pleasant.

We just want you to know that we noticed and are very grateful.  Looking forward to catching up with you in Florida and beyond!

Keep up the good work!

Brittany & Scott







Tuesday, August 24, 2010

MORE Answers to Common Questions

Okay, okay - we've been preparing for our trip for over a year now - and we have been fielding a LOT of questions.  Some good, some ridiculous, some that make us go "hmmmm....".  Earlier in this blog we did a post on "Common Questions", but we've gotten more since then, and I'd like to tackle them here - because, to be perfectly honest - we might just go numb from answering them over and over and over again...

1)  What will you pack?...This one makes me laugh because it's like asking,"if you were going to move your life out of your house and onto a boat, what would you bring"?  Where do I begin!?  The packing list is too long and boring to list - but it will include: clothes suited for the tropics (all casual, lots of cotton, swim suits, flip flops, shorts, tanks...etc.), sailing gear (our 'foul weather' gear, sea boots and polypropylene under-layers from our racing days), two computers,  lots of dual purpose gadgets like Velcro and various sizes of zip lock bags, a medical kit, sails, a sail repair kit, engine spare parts kit, kitchen stuff (minus the coffee maker, kitchen-aid...etc), sunglasses, hats, books, hundreds of feet of spare line, tons of tools, sunscreen, charts, batteries, flashlights, a Barnes and Nobel "Nook", our iPod's....I could go on, but you get it the idea...

2)  What!?  You don't have a refrigerator!?  What on Earth will you eat!?!...Refrigeration is a relatively new thing people.  Humans have survived (and thrived) for pretty much the last millennium without it.  We'll make do, don't you worry.  Canned food, fresh caught fish, fresh baked bread, pastas, lentils, beans, fruits and vegetables will all be a part of our diet.  You would be shocked to find out how much food you currently refrigerate that you actually don't have to.  Mayonnaise? Yeah.  Don't need to refrigerate it.  Eggs?  Nope.  Not those either. Butter, margarine, jelly?  Nope. There are precautions you have to take - but where there is a will, there is a way.  However, will I miss chilled Sauvignon Blanc?  More than you know.

3)  What are you scared of?...For me - rogue waves, direct hit by lightning, one of us falling overboard and the other not knowing.  For Scott - afraid that the constant researching and deciding will never subside.  Afraid we won't be good at stretching our dollar enough to make our trip last a few years.
We are both afraid we won't want to come back.

4)  Where will you go first?...hmmm....probably Milwaukee, WI.  We are told the first leg of the voyage should be a short one.  Haha...but we will be headed down to Florida once we get out to the ocean and will be stopping along the way.

5)  Where are you most excited to go?...We don't know.  Honestly, we don't.  There are so many places.  We just want to go!  There is no single destination that tickles our fancy more than others.  We think having less expectations will make for a more enjoyable experience.

6)  Will you ever go ashore?...Yes.  We will not simply be floating around on the open ocean indefinitely.  One dude did it for over 1000 days.  I'm pretty sure he's insane.  If he wasn't before, he most certainly is now.  We will be on anchor 90% of our time and will have to take our inflatable dinghy ashore, but trust me, we'll go ashore.  A large part of why we are doing this is to explore new places and people!

7)  Have you ever sailed the ocean before? ...This is one of our favorite questions, and it usually comes from a cruiser who asks us this to try to make us feel intimidated or inadequate. We are onto them and know what they are really saying with that question is; "I'm not sure you should sail the ocean unless you've sailed the ocean before."  Now there's a mind bender. We just laugh at them.  Sorry, but we do.  In our opinion, you gotta start somewhere.  People blow our mind with the excuses they come up with for not doing things.

8)  How will you stay in touch?...We are still working this out.  We have a Single Side Band (SSB) Radio aboard which can transmit halfway around the world.  We will also have a satellite phone and will, most likely, have some remedial Internet connectivity so we can keep updating this little bloggy blog when we are near a port.  If not, we'll just schlep ourselves ashore and find a good, old fashioned Internet Cafe.

9)  Which "way" are you going?...We have Jimmy Cornell's "World Cruising Routes" and we are going to count on him to tell us where to go and when.  You can check our initial plan here.  We plan on heading West to the Pacific.  But we might just get stuck in the Caribbean for a while.  Who the heck knows.  We sure don't.  And you know what?  We don't care!

10)  Are people going to visit you?...We have lots of awesome friends who say they are going to visit us, however, our research indicates that this probably will not happen much, if at all.  Safety at sea is determined by the weather and only travelling when that weather is right - making it almost impossible to say we'll be at 'x' place at 'x' time, especially months in advance.  We've read that if guests do come to visit us, they get to choose where (among the list places we're planning on going) OR when, but not both.  This obviously makes it really hard for landlubbers to plan a vacation.  That said, we WELCOME our friends and family to join us for a stint here and there if possible!

11)  What if you get into a fight?...Scott will go in the dinghy and I'll let out about 100 feet of line, of course.

12)  Is someone awake all the time?...There are two parts of 'cruising' - time at sea (sailing to places - can be anywhere from 1-30 days at a time or more if we are reeeeaaaly unlucky) and time at anchor/in port.  When we are anchored we will be in what can be compared to a floating trailer park.  Glamorous, I know.  When we are voyaging, however, yes, someone will always be awake and on "watch".  We will do this in 3-4 hour shifts unless weather is bad or we need to do a sail change or some other two person maneuver, at which point we will both be on deck to help each other.  Under normal circumstances, when one person is on deck, the other will most likely be getting rest.  Being well rested is the #2 most important safety precaution after diligent weather monitoring.

13)  Are you scared of sharks?...in a word.  YES.  I am shark-phobic.  When I was a kid my family watched "Jaws" like some families watched "Jeopardy".  It scarred me, and I deal with it.  I still dive and snorkel and all that jazz.  Scott is less scared than I, but the idea of running into one is not appealing. That said, sharks are probably not going to be a problem.  Someone once told me you are more likely to get struck by lightning then attacked by a shark, which would at least be quicker I presume.

14)  Are you sure you're ready?...in the words of Captain Ron, "Well, if anythings going to happen, it's going to happen out there!"  I love this question, really, I do.  It is almost always followed by a sideways glance and a hint of doubt.  Here's the thing: Is anyone ready for anything?  Are first time parents "ready" for a baby?  Is a recent college graduate "ready" for the real world?  Is a budding entrepreneur "ready" to quit working for the man and go out on his own?  No.  They are prepared as best they can be, have the tools they think they need and everything else they simply FIGURE OUT.  We will do the same.  If everyone waited until they were "ready" to do things, I'll bet a lot more would not get done.  I can guarantee we'll leave with at least 25 things on our "to-do" list.

15)  What about babies?...Yeah, we want a few.  We'll cross that bridge when we come to it though.  They would, however, be really useful to hoist up the mast and get into all those tight spaces on the boat...hmmmm...Maybe we'll have a baby in Mexico, maybe another one in New Zealand and one in Europe.  Then we could be like Brad and Angelina.

So that is it for now.  I think I have adequately covered the top 15 we have been getting lately.  Hopefully this helps paint a clearer picture.  If not, well, I don't know...I guess just ask us!

Love,

Brittany & Scott

Monday, August 23, 2010

Brightwork

"Brightwork" refers to the varnishing of wood.  Varnish is what makes wood beautiful, shiny and - well - bright.  Any sailor who has done this even once will tell you it is a major pain in the "A".  As someone who just did this I have to agree.  However, if you have any teak on your boat - you will be doing it a disservice not to treat it.  Varnished wood turns heads.  And we all know looking good is worth something...right?

I have done a lot of research on the subject, because varnish - while beautiful - doesn't last long in the hot, tropical sun (where we will be).  It breaks down under the strong UV rays - peeling and bubbling - meaning it needs to be done and re-done several times a year if you want to keep it looking bristol.  We don't want to deal with that - so I hit the world wide web and found the product "Honey Teak".  Long story short - this stuff looks like varnish, but lasts MUCH longer.  In fact, Tom Fabula (the owner of the company) swears to me that I won't even need to touch it for 2 years or more.   One reformed varnish-aholic I talked to hasn't done a thing for ten years since switching to Honey Teak.  I like the sound of that.

With no further ado - here is what we did, in photos:

First, you have to strip the original varnish.  This is easiest done with a heat gun and a scraper.  Don't let the word "easiest" fool you - this is still a painfully laborious job.
Now scrape the wood.  This is when you go "Oh crap.  We really opened a can of worms here."
I read these instructions over and over and over again.  I also called the owner, Tom, about 15 times.  He is lovely, by the way.  A huge help.  Held my hand the entire way.
After you strip, then you SAND.  This is our new friend, Jim, who just decided to help us out of the goodness of his heart.  He put in about 24 man hours with us this weekend.  Thank you Jim!!
After you sand - then you CLEAN the teak with a two-part teak cleaner that is sure to cause cancer in laboratory rats.  Here is my awesome brother, Kevin, hosing it down.
After you clean, then you TAPE.  The amount of time you spend bent over doing this project really reeks havoc on your back.  Kevin looks cool with his bandanna.
Now, you are ready for application!
Here is what it looks like, before....and after!
Brush on Honey Teak.  3 coats.  By the third you are pretty much over it.
Mmmmmmhhhhhhhmmmm. Shiny.
Finished!  Beautiful.
Gorgeous.

Apparently geese like it too.  Ten of these guys came 'round and floated ever so peacefully at the bow, looking up at us longingly.  Considering we NEVER have geese around our boat, this was weird (and actually sort of creepy) and we chalked it up to the honey teak.
So we did it!  It took us about 5 solid days of work.  Big thanks to my brother Kevin and our new friend Jim.  Their man hours and input were invaluable and we cannot thank them enough.

Some lessons we learned:
  1. What you think will take 'x' amount of time, will most likely take 'x times 2 (or 3 or 4....)' at the very least.
  2. Stripping varnish with a heat gun, while very effective, can be dangerous.  Scott and I have the 2nd degree burns to prove it.
  3. Geese are mysteriously drawn to Honey Teak in the "if you build it they will come" variety.
  4. Honey Teak is awesome, and to deal with a company where you can call the owner on his cell phone and talk to him from 8am to 10pm every single day is invaluable.  They just don't make 'em like that anymore.
  5. My dad was REALLY smart to build his boat out of aluminum.


EDITORS NOTE 1/21/13:  Rasmus' teak looked good as new when we sold her in the Fall of 2012.  There were a few dings and worn spots where we nicked it, but overall, the toerails and woodwork looked exactly as they did two years prior - no peeling, no cracking, no dullness.  We swear by Honey Teak.  It is amazing to us that no one knows anything about this product.  Everywhere we went people would comment on our woodwork and ask us what we used.  We cannot recommend this product enough.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

This Weekend in Numbers

4 - The number of times we went to West Marine
3 - The number of DC outlets installed
1 - The number of Arches that came to the boat for a semi-final fitting!
2 - The number of power sanders used to finish off stripping the teak
22 - The number of pieces of sandpaper we used with those sanders
11 - The number of times I called Tom Fabula from "Honey Teak"
4 - The number of coats of "Honey Teak" we applied to the toe rails
3 - The number of coats of "Clear Coat" we applied to the toe rails
2 - The number of times we went to ISTANBUL for dinner, our most fave restaurant EVER
10 - The number of bottles of wine we (and friends) drank after 12+ hour days of boat work
4 - The number of Tylenol we took to get over the hangovers from those bottles of wine
2 - The number of winches removed to be serviced
11 - The number of Potbelly's sandwiches that I bought for all our helpers this weekend
10 - The number of Canadian geese who mysteriously appeared at our boat at twilight yesterday
42 - The number of man hours that went into our boat this weekend (so far)!
1,213 - The number of projects we still have left to do
24 - The number of days left until our intended departure date!

We are kicking butt and taking names people!

Love,
Brittany and Scott

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Total Chaos

This is what our boat looks like.  Total chaos.  Finding say...a Phillips head screw driver in this mess is like finding a needle in a haystack.  This is Where's Waldo on steroids.  Speaking of, where is Waldo?  Can you find him?



Love,

Brittany & Scott

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

We are not lost!

There is more to follow- but I wanted to just update everyone on what has been going on because let me tell you - there has been a LOT!

1)  We have been getting shipment upon shipment of goods including, but not limited to: weather stripping, fans, wedding "thank yous" (yes, they are coming!), new handrails, teak finishing product, super cute Patagonia underwear (boy shorts = double as swim suit bottoms!), more zip lock bags than I care to count, and new bedding, to name a few...
2) We went to the Jimmy Buffett show with 20 of our friends and had a blast.  I am 99.9% sure I was on the Jumbo Tron which is yet another item to cross off my bucket list, and I may or may not have sat in a baby pool with strangers for 45 minutes to cool off.
3)  We made a new friend, a lovely German man by the name of "Eggie" (we think he just calls himself that because he assumes we will not be able to pronounce his real name, he's most likely correct).  Eggie has been sailing around the world for 3+ years and just pulled into our little harbor on Thursday.  Take one look at his boat and you KNOW this thing has been around the world.  Our friend Lester introduced us and we all became fast friends and shared a couple of meals (and some awesome shipping charts!! SCORE!)
4)  I finished stripping our toe rail teak of varnish.  This job was about as much fun as another scraping job that comes to mind.  But with the help of my brother Kevin, we got the job done.  More on this in another post...
5) I drove "Eggie" to the airport to pick up his friend "Color" - seriously, these Germans have some pretty funny names.
6)  Went to West Marine only TWICE and both times spent less than $200!!  WHOO HOO.
7)   We started drilling holes and running wiring for our electronics.  Sooner than later we will be a (somewhat) functioning boat with all the "bells and whistles" (aka lights and instruments).  Working with flashlights at night is less than ideal.  Especially because our boat is "the place to be" for spiders and once the sun goes down, they are EVERYWHERE.  And man do they work fast.  Nothing like crouching down to run a wire, and coming up only to have your head covered in a freshly woven sticky web and coming eye to eye with some nasty looking arachnid who I *swear* has fangs...but I digress...
8)  I “cleaned” all of our teak wood with a "two part" teak cleaner.  I am convinced "Two Parts" means nothing more than "twice as long"....
9)  Scott mounted all our beautiful new instruments on our beautiful new instrument panel! Pics to come.
10)  Despite the fact that our boat looks like a Home Depot crashed head first into a West Marine while going 90 mph, we seem to be making some progress!

More to follow - we are moving along FULL STEAM AHEAD.

G'night.  ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz......

Brittany & Scott

Friday, August 13, 2010

Yes, we admit it, we are Parrotheads

I know, I know - a bunch of you just groaned.  I don't know why Jimmy Buffett tends to be so polarizing, but he is.  Whatever.  His concerts are the most fun EVER.   I can't put my finger on what it is about Parrotheads (what people call Buffett fans), but you've never seen more drunk people get along than at a Buffett show.  It's like Halloween in August.  Mardi Gras in the summer.  It's happy fun craziness all around.  And we love us some happy fun craziness.

In my opinion, life is way to short to do anything halfway, so I go full throttle with just about everything.  Buffett is no exception.  I have a 12 x 12 tailgate tent, beads, leis, a blow up palm tree, a tiki head bubble blower, hats, buttons, shot glass necklaces, beach balls, lawn signs, and all sorts of junk for this stuff.  It is all in a huge box labeled "Buffett".  Lots of people stop by our tailgate and join the fun, because we're always having so much of it.

Here are some images of Buffett's past....

Good grief we look cheesy.  I assure you - we are actually 'cool' people, despite what this picture evokes.

My and my brother.  Yep.  He's a Parrothead too.  And a killer fisherman.  Random factoid for you.

Sometimes we even play "superman" if we feel the urge.

When isn't a shot ski a good idea!?!?! (until you're sober and your realize how many people slobbered all over those glasses you just put your mouth on...ewwww)

My sister Chelsea is a Parrothead too.  In fact, she was once arrested at a Buffett concert when she was younger.  Did that stop her?  Heck no!  Funny story.

And of course you have to grill!! What is a tailgate without the grill!?!

So folks, don't judge.  We just like to have a good time.  And if that means bobbing our heads to cheesy, overplayed "island" music, dancing our butts off while drinking margaritas from squirt guns and dressing like color-blind retired Floridians - then by golly, we are going to do it. 

Love,
Brittany & Scott

Thursday, August 12, 2010

I Married Adventure

Some very dear friends of ours (who are also sailors with a thirst for adventure) got us this book for our wedding.  I started reading it and love it.  I think it's perfect.  It might even be magic and I am certain I was meant to have it. 

This book is akin to finding a hidden treasure.  Written in the 1930's it is an autobiography of the travels and adventures of Osa and Martin Johnson.  True trail blazers, way ahead of their time.  It feels like an ancient artifact that has resurfaced to teach us something new...the fact that we have an original copy just adds to the allure...




Here, in a story about everywhere else in the world, is romantic Americana that will one day be history.  These pages themselves are adventure....Many a story is called a saga.  This is one...when Osa married Martin she married his destiny.  It was to be always a-going, always-a seeing.  Home was to be a schooner in the South Seas, a Raft in Borneo, a tent on safari, a hut in the black Congo, sometimes a dash of Paris, interludes of an apartment on Fifth Avenue - but always a place to be going from.

No matter where or how, through it all, the telling is no more travelogue and picture album, but rather the intimate tale of two lives - boy and girl from Kansas, pushing their horizons into new places.  The bigger story is of their life, sometimes to be read between the lines, and not quite so much of the world they went to see as of the hearts they took with them.



Dream big,

Brittany & Scott

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The best way to figure out if it will work...

...Is to try it out.


Scott and I went to West Marine to play with some blocks and line.  We are trying to create a double-ended continuous main sheet.  Blah blah blah, basically it means we want to be able to pull this particular line from both sides of our boat. 

This here is not the solution, but it helped us work it out.  When dealing with double and triple purchase blocks, simply "imagining" how it will work sends the head spinning.  It would be like doing a crossword puzzle without a pencil.  Easier to just run it, see how it looks and if it makes sense.  We sat on the floor scratching our heads and running lines in and out of blocks like these for about 30 minutes.  To quote one store patron, "Oooooohh.  You guys look like you're having fun!" 

Indeed.

Love,
Brittany & Scott

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Things I will miss, things I won't, and a few things I'm looking forward to...

As I finish up my last week of work and we get this close to moving out of our little (but cozy and adorable) rental apartment, the fact that our lives are about to change drastically is very apparent.  We are on the verge of something and we only now are becoming acutely aware of it (it's about time, right?). 

Here, with the glaring reality that change is just on the horizon are some things that I can identify I will miss about our 'land' lives.  And some things I will not miss.  And some things I am looking forward to.  Just in case you're curious...

Things I will miss:
  • Long, hot, (wasteful) fresh-water showers with all the lotions and potions I want
  • Being able to drink water that doesn't taste funny and in any quantity I see fit
  • Being able to drink COLD water
  • COLD anything, for that matter (we have no refrigerator on our boat)
  • Convenient stores - they really are so....so....convenient
  • The security of a paycheck
  • Being able to do laundry whenever I want and not by hand, in salt water
  • A bed that doesn't squeak or move constantly
  • Closets.  Big, giant, walk in closets to store all our gear
  • Being able to walk/bike pretty much everywhere we ever want
  • Chilled Sauvingnon Blanc.  Oh, the pain!
  • Our favorite Turkish restaurant, Istanbul.  We'll miss you Keram!
  • Not having to consider and/or worry about mildew ALL THE TIME
  • Being able to call someone when something breaks and having them fix it within 24 hours (I'm talking plumbing here, people)
  • Bikram yoga, running daily, not having to take a dinghy to shore if I want/need anything
  • Internet and all it's at-your-finger-tips resources any time, any place
  • Our friends and family.  We'll miss them the most.  For sure.
Things I will not miss:

  • Traffic/cars and all associated tickets/road rage
  • Working out of a 4 x 4 cubicle. Every. Single. Day
  • The sound of "el" train every 7 minutes outside of our apartment window (Like, right outside - so loud you have to pause the t.v when it passes and it has woken me up in a gasping, grabbing-at-the-air panic more than once at 5am)
  • The feeling that we always have to be somewhere because we are so. damned. busy.
  • Having a pretty predictable schedule and a routined life
  • The noise of city life (sirens, honking horns, construction, trains, screeching tires, homeless evangelists...etc)
  • The need to wear anything other than shorts, tank tops, flip flops and bikinis
  • The smell of Wrigleyville (where we live) after a Cubs game (for those who don't know, it's a mixture of stale beer, body odor, and vomit)
  • I actually will not miss the Cubs either, come to think of it
  • CNN and pretty much any other sensationalist US news source (save NPR, that I like)
  • Did I mention working out of a cubicle day in and day out?
  • Being in a "rush" or feeling "late"
  • Bills
  • Television (Jersey Shore?!  Toddlers and Tiaras?!  Really!? These are shows!? And they are legal!?)
  • The "status quo" and all the limiting social expectations that go along with it
  • but I am most excited to say "buh-bye" to:  CHICAGO WINTER and all the hell that comes with it!  See ya!!
Things I am looking forward to:
  • Living simply
  • Being excited for a big rain storm because we can a) top off our water tanks b) shower and c) wash/rinse boat/clothes/gear
  • Going, literally, where the wind takes us
  • Exploring new places and cultures with fresh, excited eyes
  • Forging new bonds and friendships
  • Having experiences that only .001% of the population have
  • Night watches with nothing but the sea and the stars
  • Seeing the Southern Cross in the night sky (and now I have Crosby, Stills and Nash in my head "When you see the Southern Cross for the first time, you understand why you came this way....")
  • Islands, mon
  • Experiencing that first crazy storm after which we're thankful we're alive
  • Meeting a real, live mermaid and her lobster and flounder friends (Just kidding.  Want to make sure you're awake!)
  • Learning the ukulele and any other hobby we undoubtedly pick up
  • Becoming incredibly efficient, self-reliant and resourceful with every aspect of our lives
  • Living "off the grid"
  • Fishing and then eating the fresh fish we catch...mmmmm...
  • Entrusting each other with our lives and the bond that undoubtedly ensues
  • Learning to cook and getting very creative with it (again, no refrigeration - whaddup SPAM!)
  • That first big ocean crossing
  • Seeing a whale breach (excited for all wildlife encounters, but this one is what I am most excited for)
  • Traveling the world with my husband in our home
  • Reading, reading, reading, reading and more reading.....
  • Writing about it all
That about covers it, for now.  It will be interesting to re-visit this list in a year or two...I'll probably laugh at my naivete.  Or perhaps I'll think "damn, I was pretty spot on".  We shall see!

Monday, August 09, 2010

Container ship crashes...

A container ship collided with another today, spilling it's oil and contents into the Indian Ocean.  Among it's cargo are hundreds of shipping containers.

There's a lot of scuttlebutt about boats hitting these lost containers out in the open ocean.  They supposedly tend to stay afloat for quite some time and tend to lurk just a few feet below the waters surface, so you can't see them with the naked eye.  There is no doubt that hitting one would/could result in loss of the boat.  And fast.

However - most seem agree that the odds of hitting one are very slim.  Still, it is a little unnerving to imagine ramming into a 20 x 10 foot tank submerged ever so slightly below the water's surface.

But you have to wonder - what was in those lost containers?  Gym shoes?  Plastic fan blades?  Lighters?  Doll heads? Hopefully not the new cockpit table we ordered!  ;)

Love,

Brittany & Scott

Some images of our sail shakedown...

Raising the sail at the dock, just to make sure it fit right.
Then we raised it out on the lake...
It fits!
Cruising along nicely.
Our friend Shawn took the helm for a while.
A big thanks to John Baxter of Doyle for doing such a great job for us.

Lots of love,
Brittany & Scott

Sunday, August 08, 2010

We are a SAIL boat!!!

We have sails on our boat.

ACTUAL SAILS!!

Beautiful, new, dacron sails.  Considering our boat has not had sails in a hot minute (read: about 10 months), this is a big deal.  Want to know what else?  Yesterday we went SAILING on our boat.  It was fantastic to have her out on the water again.  Pics to come...right now, we're heading to West Marine for the 142nd time.

Love,
Brittany & Scott

Thursday, August 05, 2010

Move over Jason Mraz, we've got a ukulele and we are NOT afraid to use it!

A lot of people ask us what we will do with all our "free" time on the boat (aside from maintenance, reading, writing, swimming, provisioning, repairing, snorkeling, exploring, enjoying etc. etc. etc).

We'll learn the ukulele of course.  DUH.

Yippee!! A teeny tiny guitar!!

Scott bought this little baby yesterday and I am so so so sooooooooo excited about it.  I'm not sure why, but I foresee HOURS of entertainment with this thing.  Move over Jason Mraz, Scott is already working on a ukulele version of  "I'm Yours".  And it's good.  It's reeeeealll good.  He might even pick up a fedora somewhere...just sayin'.

Furthermore - I dare you to think of a more cliche appropriate instrument for the islands.  Okay, besides the steel drums (which, incidentally, Scott has looked into buying - I said no.  For now.). It is perfect.  Absolutely perfect.

As if that wasn't enough, he also bought one of those things to mount a harmonica on so that it sits in front of your face.  If I didn't know any better, I'd think Scott was getting ready to start a one man band....as long as he doesn't end up like this guy - I think we'll be good.

Wheeeeeeeee!

Yeah.  Something tells me we will have plenty to entertain ourselves with.

Love,
Brittany & Scott
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